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SIX

Sorsha

Popcorn was hardly enough to fill a gal up, scorch-your-tongue-off spicy or not. As I tramped up the stairs past the fabric shop to my apartment, my stomach grumbled about how long I’d delayed dinner time. It was definitely time to eat.

I fit my key into the lock, singing to myself: “When the meal’s in sight, I’m gonna run all night, I’m gonna run to chew…”

I pushed open the door half expecting my new shadowkind roomies to be waiting on the threshold all but wagging their tails to see me home. Instead, the hall was vacant, the apartment totally silent, no movement even in what I could see of the kitchen.

For just a split second, my spirits lifted with the hope that the trio had changed their minds about the whole glomming-onto-Sorsha plan and gone off to pursue their rescue efforts on their own. Just a split second, because an instant later, three distinctive forms wavered out of the shadow cast by the front door like watercolor paints condensing into a sharpened image.

Pickle scampered out of my bedroom, saw the much larger shadowkind, and cringed before flinging himself the rest of the way toward me. I’d have been surprised he didn’t flee right into the shadows, except he’d gotten so attached to me that he stuck to his physical form all the time these days. I wasn’t sure he even remembered how to vanish into the darkness.

I scooped him up to set him on his preferred shoulder perch and eyed my obstinate guests. “You decided you’d rather lurk?”

Thorn was wearing the dour expression that seemed to come so naturally to his rugged face. He squared his broad shoulders as if his form wasn’t intimidating enough up close. “It’s much easier—and more discreet—for us to travel through the shadows.”

Snap’s moss-green eyes were lit with a neon sparkle. “Such a fascinating place,” he said with an errant flick of his tongue that, yes, I was sure now was slightly forked at the tip. “So many chairs—and what is the purpose of them swinging up?”

Chairs that swung up…? My stance tensed, Pickle’s claws jabbing my collarbone as he echoed my reaction. “You followed me to the theater?”

Thorn gave me a baleful look. “We could hardly ensure your protection if we stayed in the apartment when you’ve left it, m’lady.”

I’d definitely heard him right that time. “ M’lady ?”

“Excuse the archaics,” Ruse said with his typical amused smirk. “Our friend here hasn’t spent much time mortal-side since the Middle Ages.”

Thorn had said it so stiffly I got the impression he resented the honorific anyway, not that I’d required it. “Well, I’m not your lady ,” I said to him. “And I told you I don’t need your protection. You can’t go sneaking around after people without them even knowing?—”

Except they could, because they were shadowkind, and that was how they worked. Even now, in the face of my irritation, Thorn and Snap only appeared to be various degrees of puzzled. I had the feeling Ruse understood my protest, but that didn’t mean he sympathized. His smirk suggested the opposite.

“We didn’t interfere with your activities,” Thorn said. “I would like to know, though, what business that congregation of mortals has with the shadowkind.”

“And how were those images put on that wall?” Snap put in. “So large and—moving!”

He drew in a breath as if to exclaim more, but Thorn cut his gaze toward the slimmer man with a firm glower. Snap shut his mouth with an apologetic dip of his divine head.

Suddenly I was twice as annoyed as before. Who’d put Mr. Brawn in charge of any of us? If their “boss” had brought all three of them on, then no doubt the apparent sun god here was just as capable as the others no matter how much the mortal realm amazed him. I’d rather answer Snap’s awed questions than listen to Thorn’s demands for information.

“You should have been able to figure that out if you’d been paying any attention,” I said to the hulking guy, brushing past him on my way to the kitchen. They weren’t going to stop me from grabbing the dinner I’d been looking forward to, even if my enthusiasm had dwindled. “The Fund is an organization of mortals who are aware of the shadowkind’s existence and do what they can to help the creatures who’ve run into major trouble here. Whoever nabbed your boss, they’d be among the most likely to have heard something.”

I snatched a frozen dinner from the freezer and shoved it into the microwave. I definitely wasn’t in the mood for an extended cooking session right now.

The trio had followed me into the kitchen, Thorn in the lead. He folded his bulging arms over his chest. “It didn’t sound as if they relayed any information that would direct us.”

“They didn’t,” I agreed. “Because either your friend Omen got grabbed by some regular if particularly ambitious hunters and it’s all a coincidence that he was talking conspiracy theories beforehand, or the conspirators are keeping their plotting incredibly quiet. I’ve got other people I can check with, though.”

“You told the woman in white that you’d accompany her to a place called ‘Jade’?”

Sweet jackrabbits and hares, how closely had he been eavesdropping? I gritted my teeth as I got my fork. The microwave dinged, not a moment too soon.

“Jade’s,” I said. “As in Jade’s Fountain. It’s a bar run by one of your kind, with other shadowkind as frequent clientele along with various mortals, most of whom have no idea. She doesn’t like to get involved in inter-realm conflicts, but she’ll pass on observations if she doesn’t think it’ll come back to bite her—or she might point me to someone else in the know.”

Thorn didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure this is the most fruitful avenue you could take? Talking hasn’t resulted in any progress so far.”

I resisted the urge to mash my newly heated container of pad thai into his face. Satisfying as it might briefly be, it’d be a waste of the food.

“It’s the best strategy I can think of. If you want to keep busy in the meantime, how about tomorrow you show me the spot where Omen got ambushed and maybe we’ll find something there?” Maybe I could move these three along before I even got to Jade’s, and I could spend my time there chatting with Vivi instead of digging for clues.

“I highly doubt our attackers would have left obvious identifying ephemera behind,” Thorn said, his glower deepening.

Of course he’d take offense to the slightest hint that he might have missed something. I shrugged. “Well, maybe I’ll pick up on something you all wouldn’t have. If you have other avenues you want to pursue, get to it. Now I’m going to go have dinner. Alone.”

Since I wasn’t likely to get privacy in the kitchen, I marched back down the hall. But my “protectors” couldn’t take a hint. They trailed after me as if connected by a magnetic force.

I spun around when I reached my bedroom doorway, about to tell them off. Before I had the chance, Thorn barreled ahead with his interrogation.

“That young man you spoke to momentarily before the images on the wall started—he gave me the impression of hostility. Is there any chance he might have something against the shadowkind after all?”

Could I stab him with my fork? I did have plenty of those. Of course, who could say whether the guy’s commitment to keeping me safe would hold firm in the wake of a direct assault. I settled for clenching the handle tighter and aiming my best death glare at him.

“Leland’s hostility has nothing to do with his feelings about you , only about me. Believe me, if I’d thought he was relevant, I’d have mentioned him. There isn’t anything else worth mentioning, so why don’t you all go raid my kitchen again and give me a break?”

Thorn’s face tightened, but he inclined his head. “If that is what you require. We will ensure your living space remains secure while you dine.”

I couldn’t help rolling my eyes, but he’d already turned his back. Snap slipped away too, still with a confused air that I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of guilt over.

Ruse had eased back a step, but he lingered in the hall, his head cocked.

“You deserve much better than that dingus anyway, you know,” he said. “He didn’t have the slightest concern for your well-being or pleasure, only what he felt he was missing out on.”

My hackles came up. “I told you to stay out of my?—”

He held up his hands with a softer smile than usual. “I didn’t need any mystic awareness to pick up on your discomfort,” he said. “My regular senses work just fine. And you never said I shouldn’t see what I could make of other people’s emotions. His weren’t subtle at all. I guarantee I could take you to heights he’d never even have bothered to attempt.”

The seductive timbre of his voice sent a giddy shiver through me, stirring up the memory of our short interlude this morning. But he didn’t stick around in any attempt to persuade me, just popped his dimple at me and turned to follow the others.

As the disdain he’d shown for Leland sank in, something clicked in my head. “You tripped him, didn’t you? In the theater?” I said, remembering how Leland had gone sprawling out of nowhere. He’d never been particularly clumsy—and he’d been walking where the shadows of the chairs fell. It wouldn’t have been hard for a shadowkind to extend just enough physicality to knock a mortal off his feet.

Ruse glanced back at me with a cheekier smile. “I figured he had it coming to him.”

He’d acted on my behalf—because the way Leland had treated me and thought about me had actually bothered him? If it’d only been a ploy to win my affection, he’d have brought it up himself. I could easily have never realized.

The incubus was continuing on his way. “Wait,” I said before he could reach the kitchen.

He stopped and turned all the way around, lifting an eyebrow in question. I didn’t normally find myself speechless around the shadowkind or, well, anyone, but just this once, my mouth had gone dry. I scrambled to sort out the mess of emotions and impulses racing through me.

Ruse needed this. Maybe I did too. Why should I care what Leland or any guy before him had thought? If heights were being offered, I wouldn’t mind going flying. I didn’t know much about the incubus, but I was pretty sure at this point that, at the very least, he wasn’t out to hurt me in any way.

And when would I get a chance like this again? Tomorrow they might find the lead they needed and give up the whole protection scheme.

“You think you can do so much better?” I said. “Let’s see you try.”

A pleased glint lit in Ruse’s hazel eyes. He strolled back to me. At my gesture, Pickle leapt onto the bookcase just inside the bedroom and tucked himself away in the felt cave of a cat bed that sat on the top shelf, filled with rags he’d shredded. I raised my chin to meet the incubus’s gaze in challenge.

“I’m so glad you’ve reconsidered,” Ruse said, all smoothness and charm, but I thought I caught a hint of relief in his expression too. The earlier “snack” had only delayed his starvation a smidgeon. Of course, if I was going to give him anything more than that, we had a negotiation ahead of us.

I eased farther into the room so Ruse could come in after me and set my dinner down on the vanity. It could wait a little longer with this other hunger stirring inside me. I fingered the fabric of my blouse over the badge I’d returned to my undershirt. The incubus might not be able to see it, but the presence of those metals would prickle at his senses.

“It’ll be even more enjoyable with the special effects,” he said. “But if you’re uncomfortable with me using any of my influence, I can hold back without your protective patch. My skills would hardly be worth bragging about if I didn’t know how to ply my trade with the same parts any mortal can put to good use.”

My hands dropped to the hem of the blouse. “You can feed, however exactly that works, but I don’t want you peeking at anything inside my head—or heart—or creating feelings with your powers.” A flicker of that icy panic passed through my chest. “Not even a tiny bit. Are we clear?”

“Crystal,” Ruse said, with a grin that practically sparkled. “We can make this all about you, Miss Blaze. My most important need will be fulfilled perfectly by your fulfillment.”

My body quivered in anticipation. The heat already rising through me overcame the chill of my worries. Why should I let events from decades ago dictate what I got to enjoy right now?

I grasped my blouse and tugged it up over my head. When I’d tossed it over the bed post, I reached for my undershirt, but Ruse touched my hand to still it.

“Allow me,” he said, so low the words washed over me like a caress. I hesitated and then let my arms fall to my sides.

He leaned in, catching my mouth with his in the most delicate of kisses, like the brush of a butterfly wing. It shouldn’t have affected me much, and yet it set off a sizzle through my lips and a pang of longing sharper than I could ever remember feeling before. At the same time, he drew the thin cotton of my undershirt up, skimming over my skin and grazing my nipples through my unpadded bra just firmly enough to provoke a jolt of pleasure through my chest.

He drew back for a second to flick the item aside, and despite my best efforts, a whimper of protest at the loss of contact spilled from my throat. Ruse smiled brilliantly as he gazed down at me.

“You’re lovely,” he said.

A giggle tumbled out of me. “I think we’re past the point of you needing to seduce me.”

“I’m simply making an honest observation.”

He tucked his arm around me as he claimed another kiss. My head reeled with it, but I didn’t intend to be the only one naked around here. As I drowned in the dark sweetness of his lips, I found the wherewithal to get to work on the buttons of his shirt. When I reached the collar, he shrugged it the rest of the way off for me without releasing my mouth.

Holy mother of miracles, his chest was as stunning as his face, all lean, sculpted muscle beneath creamy skin I couldn’t resist running my fingers over. It felt as good as it looked, firm and smooth. The flames of desire kindling between us set off another flood of heat through my body.

Ruse kissed me again, this time so hard it left my head spinning. Then he tucked his face close to mine, nipping my earlobe and murmuring, “There is one other power you might appreciate me employing. If you’d like, I can make sure no sound travels out of this room while we’re… occupied.”

Um, yeah, that sounded like a good idea. “Be my guest,” I managed to say over the eager thump of my heart.

He made a small motion with his hand and then brought that hand to the back of my bra. As the cups slipped from my breasts, he lowered his head to kiss my jaw and then my neck with careful attention.

His lips found every perfect point to spark bliss through my nerves. His hands stroked my breasts, his thumbs swiveling over both nipples at once, and a shuddering gasp tumbled out of me that made me abruptly glad he’d offered his soundproofing skill just now.

My hands settled on the incubus’s head of their own accord. As he trailed his mouth down the slope of my chest, my fingers curled into the thick waves of his hair—and brushed against those small horns that protruded on either side. Their curved surface was as hard as bone and faintly textured to the touch, but warm as skin. I grasped them instinctively.

Ruse let out an encouraging growl and swept me off my feet. For a second, I really was soaring—in his arms, from the middle of the room to the middle of my bed.

The incubus bent over me, his gaze intent. His eyes flashed golden. The bright hue only stayed for a second before he blinked as if purposefully willing them back to their mortal-appropriate hazel.

I teased my fingers along his horns and back into his hair. “You don’t have to hide it. I know what you are. Let out your regular form if you want.”

Ruse smiled wryly at me. “Better not to when you aren’t quite as swept up in sensation as I’d usually ensure. It’s pretty… intense.”

I studied him. “Do you normally need to magically sweep women away before they’ll fall into bed with you?”

He dipped his head, teasing his mouth along the crook of my jaw, my earlobe, my cheek. “No,” he murmured between the tantalizing kisses. “I happen to only pursue women who are whole-heartedly interested in the general experience. Shame and regret spoil the meal. But certain aspects are better accepted by the mortal mind when I can bring all my powers to bear.”

I was about to argue that I could handle intense just fine without any voodoo, thank you, when he claimed my mouth again. The press of his lips was plenty intense on its own. Why argue when I could simply enjoy this?

He fondled my breasts as his tongue tangled with mine, alternately gentle and forceful at just the right moments. My skin was all but singing by the time he slid down to suck one nipple into his hot mouth, and then my nerves might as well have been performing a symphony. The only sound I managed to produce was a wordless moan.

His deft fingers made short work of the fastening on my jeans. As his lips and tongue drew every particle of bliss from my chest, the sensations flaring hotter and deeper with the graze of his teeth, he tugged my pants off me. One hand came back so he could work over both breasts at the same time to even greater effect, and the other drifted across my panties with a caress so light I couldn’t stop my hips from arching up in a plea for more.

“Patience,” Ruse drawled, the vibration of his voice bringing my nipple to an even stiffer peak. I clung to his hair. As he stretched out his torturously pleasurable attentions to my chest, I emitted all kinds of sounds I’d never have thought any man could drive me to produce. But this wasn’t a man, not really.

Right then, I’d have said give me a shadowkind lover over a mortal one any day.

Just as I reached the verge of begging, the incubus eased even farther down my body, and I realized what he’d meant about this encounter being all about me. He hooked his fingers around my panties to drag them down, and then his breath was tingling deliciously over my core. Every inch of me quivered in anticipation. I barely held myself back from yanking his face to me.

He didn’t extend the blissful torment too long. The tip of his tongue flicked over my clit at just the right angle. My hips jerked, and he held them while he brought his whole mouth down on me.

Lips and tongue and just the right hint of teeth, from that sensitive bud to my slit and back up again. The wave of pleasure that rolled through me shook a deeper moan from my lungs. Just like that, I was a goner. My head arched back, my eyes rolled up. I’d swear I saw shooting stars as I came.

Ruse wasn’t done with me, though. He chuckled against my sex and lapped his tongue over me. I shuddered and whimpered, clutching his horns again, and he penetrated me with a skillful swipe. The ripples of the orgasmic aftershock swelled into a renewed surge, rushing through me higher and faster as he brought his hand to bear too. The pleasure built with each thrust of his fingers and press of his lips until I was bucking to meet him with abandon.

The second wave of release raced through me from toes to head and then crashed with a shower of ecstasy. I cried out with it, just shy of sobbing. I didn’t know whether I deserved this bliss or whether I’d ruined myself for any regular man after this, but in that moment, I wouldn’t have traded the experience for a million dollars.

Ruse lifted himself up over me. The flush in his cheeks and the satisfied gleam in his eyes told me he’d achieved everything he’d been looking for out of the encounter even if he hadn’t gotten off. He leaned in to give me one last kiss on the cheek.

“That was perfect. I won’t keep you from your dinner. Adieu, until tomorrow’s adventures.”

He stroked his fingers down my side in a final caress, pulled his shirt back on, and left with a soft click of the door closing behind him. My gaze lingered there for a moment longer.

Who would have thought? When all this was over, I might actually miss one of these intruders, just a little.